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Welcome back! This is the final part of the game, although it's an extra-long slideshow this week. Rome, dominant in almost every corner of the map, is looking to clean up the Russians with their tank regiments storming Eastern Europe. The ex-Polish territory has mostly fallen already.

Ukrainian lands fell last part and now the troops are swinging north.

The Ottomans blasted through Greece, the cultural leader of the map, last part too, but it's reduced to a stalemate. The quicker the Ottomans can get the cities back on track and the quicker they can produce some tanks, the better chance they have.

The Ottoman colony is slowly rebuilding, but looks to be in trouble should Rome commit its tanks.

That's Southwestern Europe stitched up in beautiful dark red colours. This means Rome's fronts have decreased in size so they can concentrate troops in smaller areas.

Denmark stays resolutely in Krakow, even as Italian troops swarm around it.

Russia needs to rebuild now, and the stuff being produced is sensible in general - culture in new buildings to expand borders, a stock exchange to boost the treasury, settlers to recoup lost ground, and workers to repair what the Italians destroyed.

The Manhattan Project allows ALL nations to build and use nuclear weapons, so this is potentially a big deal. Although I think only Italy has the necessary tech.

This is the real showdown here. Ottoman troops are not plentiful and Corinth already looks like it could fall.

However, another city falls further down the coast, demonstrating a strong naval presence.

Ukraine is collapsing.

But so is Ottoman Poland. That's a lot of tanks!

Lviv and Graz both move ownership. The net is tightening.

The Italian troops are heavily damaged, but the Roman navy are providing great support. I wonder if Greece could snipe a quick city back in this mayhem.

Pharsalos finally falls, but Corinth is still resolute.

Or not. Sparta I think contains a plethora of wonders and would be useful for the Romans.

Sweden looks to be battling the Romans. Poznan is in danger here but there's a stack of ground troops moving down.

Poznan does indeed fall and Roman defenses spring up quick. The Mech Infantry has 18 defense which makes it stronger than anything but one troop - which no-one currently possesses.

Less bluster and more capture, mister.

In an unexpected move Rome takes Knossos. This gives them a great spot from which to take Asia Minor.

Another city razed - when will the violence stop??!? NEVER: WE WANT BLOODSHED

Konya is also Roman now.

Sweden haven't managed to take back Poznan but they're harassing the Italians nicely, with their strong navy keeping the Italians in check.

Who will take second place? Russia or the Ottomans? Both are kinda on the way down at the moment. 10 civs dead, 8 remaining.

Yeah, if everyone declared war on Rome, Rome would probably still win this.

We take a look at Irish England, where they're still produced longbowmen. They were great at Agincourt guys, but not now. The Romans haven't fired a bow in millenia! They've discovered the Internet too, and presumably memes are but a few years away (in 1640AD maybe)

Kharkiv falls. Rome is leading with defensive troops, a cunning tactic of the AI which forces you to expend troops on defeating them and not the offensive units hiding underneath. Ottomans are building weak sipahi who will have no chance against the Mech Infantry (7 attack vs 18 defense!)

The new settle is no longer.

The SETI program gives a free research lab in every continental city, so that's good for the techy Italians but not so good for anyone else. In the background Iznik falls. Istanbul is not far off.

Will the Southern brigade beat the Western brigade to the capital?

Here's Rome. The mission to go to Apollo's playground is blessed by Mars and Jupiter themselves. 94 production is incredibly high for a city, especially one with only 2m inhabitants.

Here's the first modern armour. Fantastic at blitzkrieg with its rapid movement and with a decent defense too, which will make these wars go much faster.

Istanbul falls to one such unit. This is a clinical deconstruction here.

Progress on the Swedish front, too, with two captures and a razing.

...which is quickly settled by Russia, who guard it with a flak.

There goes Ukraine. They expanded well but never really fought a good war. They did capture some Austrian cities at one point but kinda gave up after that, and it's only because they're far away from everyone else that they survived this long. They finish 8/18.

Wowee, that's a good stack of good troops. The asterisked Elite tank near the bottom has spawned a great general (Leader in Civ 3), who can create an army or rush improvements. The AI sucks at using them. An Army can be filled with three or four units, making it a composite unit of its constituent parts. The average of the attack-defense-movement stats is calculated at the whole army fights at that strength. It also gains one movement, which combined with something like the Modern Armour makes for a terrifying troop. The AI never really attacks a human-controlled army as it works out it's too strong.

The Romanian heartland is either damaged, destroyed, Roman, or a combination of the above.

This has been a quick descent for the Ottomans, who fought and expanded bravely from their little corner. But Rome, wow, they can build a lot of high-tech troops.

Byzantium - pretty near to where it should be - is settled and the townfolk put to work making more troops.

And just like that, the Ottomans have gone. They had great campaigns against their neighbours and at one point looked to threaten Roman hegemon, but they never built any tanks for some reason - tech or resource-lacking, maybe - and that lead to their downfall. They finish a respectable 7/18 but they should rest knowing many of the remaining are lesser than they were.

Brundisium is also settled.

And another cheery cherry chappy chops and sets up shop.

The Russians are hoping these are 'just visiting', or in transit to Sweden. When you control so much of the map as the Romans do, there's not many tourist destinations left.

Ooooooh, mobile nukes. The AI is hopeless at sea assaults, but this is some serious firepower here.

Sweden is in danger, but at least they're building tanks to counter it.

Barcelona, originally the Spanish second city, is now highly productive in its own right, and produces a scientific breakthrough that basically doubles city growth. One of the victory conditions (turned off for this game but the AI try and complete it anyway) is to have 66% of territory AND population, so this is a good wonder to get to try that.

Orebro is crumbled into dust and devoured by hungry Romans.

As is the next city on the list. Come on, try to not raze them all...

To me, that looks like a nuke's gone off on Sicily. Rome is attacking Greece, trying to nab all the wonders remaining probably.

Definitely nukes. The pollution is a tell-tale sign, as is the lack of troops, improvements, and population.

Malmo and Visby also cop some nuclear hell. Rome is not being kind here, despite having more than enough troops to obliterate the world.

Gothenburg is nuked and attacked. Not sure why that nuke was necessary, now the new Roman rulers have to deal with radiation, a lack of food, dead bodies, and the grim snow that falls now and again. Oh, and Swedish weather.

In a shock manoeuvre, or a piece of cunning Swedish diplomacy, Denmark capitulates first. They did okay for such a bad starting location, attack the Netherlands and securing colonies in Poland. They just didn't go any further They finish 6/18.

More emergency settling.

Athens, nuked, is under attack from real ground troops.

...and falls.

...as does Thermopylae.

...as does Herakleia. Sorry for the tediousness of the narration, but sometimes war is tedious, ya'know?

Ireland might climb a few spots simply because everyone's forgotten about them. The rest of the table seems fair.

Rome is about three-quarters of the world now.

The Romans must have heard me, because they're attacking the Irish. Kilkenny has already fallen, and London looks weak. These riflemen are a quarter of the strength of the units invading, and the musketmen a measly one-sixth. To compound the trouble Ireland is in, the nukes have arrived. Will they be used?

Belfast is curiously devoid of troops, but the island status means only one troop can possibly take the city - a marine. But does Rome have any left?

Not in this stack.

Galway is a surprise capture, but gives the Irish hordes something to gun for.

Kilkenny is still on the target list though, as we see that The Hague is razed. Old Netherlands is suffering a lot for their misdemeanours.

We take a brief pause from one war to focus on a bigger war - Russia is now undergoing a slight technical issue. Already some cities are razed.

And some have been nuked to smithereens. Moscow, Lodz, Murmansk, and St Petersburg are all in ruins and with damaged troops. Roman troops will cut through these like a hot knife through butter.

More nukes are let rip, bringing the total to at least nine.

Meanwhile in merry Ireland, London and Nottingham have fallen. Supercarries and battleships the size of nations rove up the St George Channel.

What isn't razed is capture. This is a quicker war than the Ottomans were.

Russians bravely build troops, but by the time the TOW infantry are built, they'll have been destroyed.

Nearly....

...there. Russia was great in the early game, settling all the crucial spots and denying any other civ from getting their mitts on their land. They waged good wars against Poland and Germany, owning land from Moscow to Berlin in a great Cold-War wishlist. They had good tech and good troop levels, but Rome being the nuke-happy Rome it currently is, destroyed them utterly. Russia finishes 5/18.

War has petered out a little here, no nukes are flying, and no new cities have fallen.

Sweden, too, is looking calm at the moment.

On the mainland though, whatever city was at the bottom has fallen, and Dublin may be next.

Indeed it falls. Rome has but one capital not in its grasp - Stockholm -although the game doesn't really work like that.

Old Russia is being rebuilt, Jerusalem and Caesara being two new towns.

Ah. Here's the nuclear warfare we need.

More settles as Rome looks to completely rid the map of anything that's not dark red.

The Swedes have some decent troops, but most of them are naval troops rather than ground ones.

And Stockholm falls. Two cities left. The turn counter on the bottom left now has a crimson sun in the corner. At the start of the game, it's not there. Once a city grows above size twelve, it turns into a yellow sun. Now nukes are flying, it's getting redder. Something metaphorical about the end of human civilisation I guess, and a neat touch I don't always notice (too busy nuking the damn Iroquois in my case I think).

Yes, Sweden has fallen. They took on Russia, Poland, and Germany, netting nothing but a Swiss city for their troubles. They didn't do very well in my opinion, but they clearly had a great diplomat in their last peace treaty as both Denmark and Russia fell before they did. They finish 4/18.

Ireland is nearly gone! That was a quicker turn of events. Still no nukes on this island though.

Belfast is unprotected. But still possibly safe.

Here are the remnants of Greece. Two awkward islands. Oh, and Ireland have been destroyed. The Curse of the British Isles meant that once England were despatched, Ireland could only sit around getting more and more behind in tech. They tried, they did, and they captured an Austrian city way up in Russia at one point, but sadly they too succumbed to the Roman menace. They finish in third.

And here's Belfast, with a stronger defense now than ever before.

Final stats. Italy is nearly triple anyone else. Russia looks safe to stay in second place by the game's rankings - but not by ours!

Everyone else is nearly dead. Rome have been remarkable, really.

Greek culture can still sting you, though.

Fresh land for settling fresh Roman cities.

The Hague is resurrected.

This is my final picture. I'm declaring the Greeks as good as dead, so I'll write their eulogy first. They did great, nabbing all the early wonders and providing a real difficult opponent for everyone. It looked at one point like they might take over Europe quicker than Rome did, but for whatever reason, they fell by the wayside. I'm killing them off now, so they finish a really well-earned 2/18.

Rome - WOW - an amazing finish for an average start. They had possibly the best UU out there, their legionaries messing up the Swiss and Austrians before anyone else. But it was the scientists of Italy that won the game, really. Greece and the Ottomans and Russia all had the power and production to win too, but not the tech. Rome took full advantage of everything, and waged some spectacularly-quick wars. I commend them for the victory!

This concludes my first AI Game - thanks so much for reading, and I'll see you in a few weeks or so for my next game.